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Crafts aren’t just for kids! An article from Neurology, a journal published by the American Academy of Neurology, states that older adults who participate in creative activities, such as crafts, could delay the development of memory problems. Crafting also allows you to develop new skills and can give you the opportunity to do something a little bit different. All great reasons to make a craft!

Below is a craft that we recently made at the Louisa County Library. Try making this paper rosette wreath at home:

Step 1:Fold your strip like an accordion using 1/4” folds. You might want to score your lines with a ruler first if you have trouble making small, even folds. You’ll need about 11 pieces of paper, more if you want to overlap your rosettes.

Step 2:Join the ends of the folded paper and secure with glue or tape to form a cylinder.

Step 3:Gather the folds on one end of the cylinder and gently press down—don’t worry if you have to gently reshape your cylinder as you go. As you press down, the shape of the rosette will begin to form.

Use hot glue and a small piece of scrap paper to secure it at the center of the plain side of the rosette. The scrap paper will create a flat surface and will make it easier to glue to the wreath form.

Step 4:Glue circles (or other shapes) to the centers of the circles on the decorated side of the rosette.

Step 5:Arrange rosettes around wreath form and glue into place. If you want to make smaller rosettes, cut the paper into 1″ x 12″ strips.

Fermented by Charlotte Pike – A beginner’s guide that will help you incorporate fermented foods into your day-to-day eating through making your own sourdough, yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi, and more.

Preserving by the Pint by Marisa McClellan – This guide to canning, jarring and making preserves is aimed at urban dwellers and farmer’s market shoppers interested in working with smaller-than-traditional amounts of produce and features 100 recipes.

Books on Tap read Dept. of Speculationby Jenny Offill at Champion Brewery on August 2. The novel, short on plot but long on introspection, follows a writer who hopes to be an “art monster” as she marries, has a daughter, teaches writing in college and negotiates her marriage after her husband’s infidelity. Told in short bursts, it has been likened to an x-ray, drawing on the author’s experimentation with poetry during a bout of writer’s block. It starts in close first person, switches to third person after the cheating is discovered and then back to first as the husband and wife reconcile.

We all liked this witty rumination on growing older, knowing oneself and making compromises. Two of us listened to the audiobook and missed all the formatting (and thought we had missed entire chapters!). We didn’t think that the characters were particularly sympathetic but the narrator’s emotions resonated. Her desire not to lose her identity and drive after childbirth and her questioning of priorities accurately reflects life in middle age. However, the point of view is so narrow, it only serves to confirm that you can never truly know what happens in another couple’s relationship. The book contains all aspects of a full life: family, career, loneliness, romance, anger. Its format also mirrors how we communicate now, inward-turning short bursts with (inaccurate?) quotations of famous people. While the ending wasn’t particularly happy, it was happier and happy enough.